Events in Australia

Christmas is part of the long summer school vacation and during December and January you can be forgiven for thinking that half of Australia is on holiday. This is when accommodation is almost always booked out.

Australia’s arts festivals attract culture vultures from all over Australia to see mainstream and fringe drama, dance, music and visual arts. The huge Festival of Sydney, which takes up most of January, is the umbrella for a number of events from open air concerts, to street theatre and fireworks. The Adelaide Arts Festival takes place at the beginning of March in even-numbered years. In odd-numbered years, Womadelaide, Adelaide’s outdoor festival of world music and dance, takes care of February. Melbourne has a Comedy Festival in February, the world’s biggest Writers’ Festival in September and the fabulous Melbourne International Festival in October. A couple of festivals to celebrate Aboriginal arts and culture include the Stompen Ground Festival, which is held in Broome in October and the Barunga Wugularr Sports & Cultural Festival, held near Katherine in June.

Sporty fun includes Darwin’s Beer Can Regatta in August, when a series of boat races are held for craft constructed entirely of beer cans; Alice Spings holds the Henley-on-Todd, a boat race ‘run’ on a dry river bed. More mainstream events include the Sydney to Hobart yacht race (from Boxing Day); the Australian Open tennis championship (Melbourne in January); the Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne in March); Australian Rules Football (around the country from March to September); and the country-stopping Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November.

Gay festivals include Sydney’s massive, outlandish Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, in February/March, and Melbourne’s January/February Midsumma Festival.

Activities in Australia

With over 7.5 million sq km of sparsely populated territory, it’s not surprising that Australia is an adventure playground. You can chew up the km with a 4WD, or explore smaller regions by foot, horseback or even on the back of a camel. You can also find some fine touring country for cycling, though only the very experienced should tackle the dry centre. There are fabulous walks for hikers in the Northern Territory’s MacDonnell Ranges, South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, New South Wales’ Blue Mountains and Snowy Mountains (straddling the border with Victoria) and Tasmania’s vast wilderness. Australia’s best skiing and snow-boarding is in the Snowy Mountains, while in the warmer months you can clip-clop along the Snowy’s excellent horse riding trails.

There are countless surfing beaches along the Australian coast, some of them in the cities (Sydney and Perth), some in beach towns (Lorne in Victoria, Byron Bay in New South Wales and the Gold Coast in Queensland) and some in remote areas (the south-west of South Australia and the north-west of West Australia). Apart from the diving mecca which is Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, diving spots include South Australia’s Kangaroo Island (where there are several accessible shipwrecks) and West Australia’s Esperance, Rottnest Island, and Carnarvon.

Whalewatching is possible at many places; the most popular are Eden in New South Wales, Warrnambool in Victoria, Albany in Western Australia and Fraser Island in Queensland. White-water rafting and/or canoeing are possible at Coffs Harbour on New South Wales’ Nymboida River, on the upper Murray near Khancoban also in New South Wales; along Queensland’s Tully and North Johnstone rivers between Townsville and Cairns; and in Tasmania.

Australia is so vast (and so empty in places) that something like 80% of long-distance trips by public transport are made by air. For many years, Qantas and Ansett monopolised the domestic scene and a cosy cooperation between the two ensured that domestic air travel remained relatively expensive. Recently Ansett and the regional airlines it owned have either collapsed or run a skeleton service, while upstart airlines have taken on Qantas, and there’s a sense of competition in the air. Few people pay full fare for domestic air travel because the airlines offer a wide range of discounts, including random discounting and air passes.

There are several long-distance bus companies but only one truly national service, Greyhound Pioneer Australia. Buses are comfortable, but if you’re travelling between major cities, be prepared for a long trip. Australia has a skeletal rail network linking all major cities except Darwin. Few people travel long-distances by train because it’s usually the slowest mode of overland transport and remains relatively expensive (though it is generally more comfortable for overnight trips). Many visitors group together and hire or purchase a car. The latter can be an economical way of travelling around Australia, as long as you don’t have too many mechanical failures. Highway 1 circumnavigates the continent, sticking close to the coast much of the way. Watch out for monstrous road trains (trucks with multiple trailers) on outback roads; naturally it’s wise to give way to anything bigger than yourself.

National holidays of Australia

New Year’s Day, Australia Day (Jan. 26 or the first Monday after that date), Good Friday, Easter Monday, ANZAC Day (April 25), Queen’s Birthday (second Monday in June), Christmas Day, Boxing Day (Dec. 26).

Located in the south-western corner of New South Wales, the Snowy Mountains are the highest section of Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Kosciusko National Park covers most of the mountains. It’s NSW’s largest park (6900 sq km/2690 sq mi), stretching from the Victorian border to the ACT. It includes all of the state’s ski resorts, rugged alpine scenery, caves, glacial lakes and forests. Although its renowned as a winter playground, the park is also popular with bushwalkers in summer, when there are marvellous alpine wildflowers. The ski resorts include Thredbo, Perisher Valley, Smiggins Hole and Mt Blue Cow. Mt Kosciusko is the highest peak at 2228m (7308ft). The main town in the region is Jindabyne, situated just outside the park boundary on the edge of a beautiful lake.